ABC 80
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The ABC 80 (Advanced BASIC Computer 80) was a home computer engineered by the Swedish corporation Dataindustrier AB (DIAB) and manufactured by Luxor in Motala, Sweden in the late 1970s (first model August 1978) and early 1980s. It was based on the Zilog Z80 and had 16 KB RAM and 16 KB ROM, the latter containing a BASIC interpreter. It had a Texas Instruments SN76477 sound chip, but there was no way to control the chips features in any detail, so the sound was limited to a small set of fixed sound effects. The monitor was a black and white TV set modified for the purpose (an obvious choice since Luxor also made TVs).
ABC 80 was also manufactured on license as BRG ABC80 by Budapesti Radiotechnikai Gyar in Hungary. It use the same keyboard, but the case was metal instead of plastic.
[edit] Popularity
The ABC 80 was a huge hit in Sweden, and grasped a majority share of the rising personal computer market, thanks to office software in swedish. Although the ABC 80 fans would defend the ABC 80 by referring to its good basic and useable extension bus, couldn't defend the home market against the gaming computers with color graphics and better sound that arrived in the early 80s, even though a new cheaper version was released that could use an ordinary TV instead of the dedicated monitor.
Luxor held on to its office market for a couple of years longer with the ABC 800 series, that had more memory and high-resolution graphics. In 1985 Luxor also tried to compete in the office market against the IBM PC with its ill-fated ABC 1600 and ABC 9000 series UNIX computers, but failed.
See also: Compis
